I love Liang's books, and this departure from her romantic comedies is inspired by the Chinese legend of Xishi. It's full of danger, deceit, noble sacrifice, bravery, and love.
I would light the fire. I would heat up this whole room. And when that didn't work--I would burn this kingdom down to ashes, turn all its men into smoke. I would, I would.
Xishi is a beautiful young woman who makes her village in the region of Yue proud, for she will almost certainly make a good marriage match.
But she catches the eye of the well-known young military advisor Fanli, and as she becomes trained in playing music and hiding her emotions, she becomes the key to an elaborate, traitorous plan: to overturn the kingdom of Wu, empower her own people, and avenge her sister's death.
She rises through the ranks of palace concubines and gains almost unfettered access to the king, all the while well aware that if she is revealed to be a traitor, not only she and Fanli but their homeland will be destroyed.
"The men will fight for their thrones and their power and their legacies, but to them we are nothing more than crickets and ants, insignificant, expendable. We will continue to worry over the rice and soy sauce and oil, three meals a day, how to escape the cold in the winter and the heat in the high summer, the holes in the roof and the bedding and the taxes. What does it matter, who wears the crown, if they will not change any of this for us?"
This story ticked so many of my boxes--a strong, young, underestimated female; an important quest; forbidden love; great dialogue; heart-stopping tension; and fierce revenge. The Eastern mythology, Xishi's deep link to her heritage, and her reluctant moments of affection for her enemy, who is foolish but vulnerable, added depth to the heart of the story.
I love Liang's characters and their voices, and I was intrigued that A Song to Drown Rivers was a reworking of an early writing piece of hers.
The ending is fanciful and strange; the tone of the book doesn't seem to be leading to a too-convenient happy ending, and as expected, Liang provides a complex set of conflicts to consider at the story's close: duty, corrupt power, the suffering of the common people, regret after retribution, and life-and-death struggles that don't always end well.
I received a prepublication edition of this title, which was published earlier this fall, courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press.
Check out my Bossy Ann Liang love!
I fell in love with Ann Liang's fake-dating young adult novel This Time It's Real, read it in one rainy afternoon, and included it in my Greedy Reading Lists Six of My Favorite Light Fiction Reads from the Past Year, Six Rom-Coms Perfect for Summer Reading, and My Bossy Favorite Reads of Summer the year I read it.
And you can find my review of her great young-adult rom-com I Hope This Doesn't Find You here.
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